Rüvetus
by Nightra
Summary: A long, sentimental story of an OC, his hero, Midoriya and Bakugo. [For those looking for smut, turn away bro, cuz this ain't the story for you. (Although there will be some darker themes later on related to this possibly.)]
1. Chapter 1: The Man Who Was My Hope

_**Boku no Hero Academia**_

 **Author's Note:** This is a test fiction, in that I'm writing this all on my tablet while interning in Denmark on days that I get free time after around 5 PM, which means my mind will be incredibly tired and utterly devoid of any and all creative ideas I usually have. On top of that, I will not use a computer (because I simply do not have one), but I will use a mini keyboard that came with the tablet (although it's very small and thus also difficult to type on..) Don't be cruel.

As for the story, I don't enjoy boy on boy romance, however I do love the interactions that are solely based on friendships between boys, hence, some of you may feel boy on boy vibes from here. There will be a final pairing though and that's because those two are quite d'awww together. Shut up. Most of you will pick up what the pairing is through the story itself.

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own it, just like how I don't own a life.

 **Rüvetus  
** _Chapter 01: The Man Who Was My Hope_

"Look! The number three hero!" A camerawoman and a lonesome reporter ran towards the slowly rising fire breaking apart in the city's library, there were no individuals inside it anymore – everyone had already been rescued from the catastrophe. But apparently one hero still felt the need to fly into the building, which meant something was going to happen, and these two hard workers were definitely going to be the ones to record it. Life seemed to have different plans though; the two were forced to back off and shield their faces once an explosion erupted on the fifth floor of the apartment complex towering above them.

"Watch out!" The woman quickly rushed forward to shove our beloved reporter aside and just in time too, any second later and he would have been covered in glass cuts for the rest of his life.

A loud thud and some grunts later though, "Kyoko! You _saved_ me, _my hero~_!"

"Buzz off." Instead of responding to the kissy face Tsuna was making, Kyoko stood up, trying as hard as possible to convince herself that the ringing in her right ear didn't mean she was going deaf. "Which floor did the hero go to?"

Silence. The man wasn't any more knowledgeable than the girl. And that realization was also the main reason for her sigh. "... Let's go, we can't leave this one alone no matter what, grab the camera."

"Looks like things just don't like going our way..." Her gaze slid over to the reporter who was nodding towards their broken camera a few steps away.

" _Craaap..._ " They stood there in quietude for a few seconds, before eventually she clapped her hands together. "If we can't film what's happening then we'll have to at least witness it ourselves so we could later write an article about it. Come _on_ , slowpoke!" Thus, without letting the expensive, now-broken technology equipment, sway her (she could repair it later anyway), Kyoko ran as fast as she could into the library, her short heels clicking every step of the way.

And although begrudgingly, the reporter checked if anything had fallen out of his pockets and then followed her inside as well.

A lovely duo.

* * *

"HAHAHAHAHAHA! _COME_ VILLAINS, COME AT ME WITH FULL FORCE!"

The two villains backed further into the fiery hallway, their arms quivering from both the heat and the dreadful man in front of them.

Our hero in this case really was quite the dreadful one. For the most part because his looks resembled that of a criminal, more so than the actual villains themselves. Of course, the entire outfit he wore was there to strike further fear into his opponents. But even without it, his physical qualities were enough to make even a pro hero wet their pants.

For example, his barely visible red and black eyes behind the already rose dark glasses constantly slipping down the man's nose. Secondly, the silken-leathery-skinny wings extruding _painfully_ out of the beige skin on the hero's back. They looked awfully sharp, like they could cut deep into a finger by just a faint touch. And finally- the final frightening duo-feature that our beloved villain-beater held, were his wolf-like fangs reaching down half of his face, making him seem like an actual predator, a werewolf. But of course he wasn't one, he was a hero.

Luck was something the hero seemed to depend on as well, because this fearmongering tactic was quite evidently working on these particular villains, but probably wouldn't work on a stronger foe.

" _F-freak_!" Bob nr 1 said and turned to head down the hallway towards the stairs. Jeff nr 1 however decided that this monstrosity was no threat whatsoever ( _despite having probably the most scared-looking face our hero had ever seen_ ), so he rushed forward in an attempt to stab the wolfie. He was wrong of course. Mere milliseconds later Jeff nr 1 lay flat on the broken, cracked floor, unconscious with just the hero's hand roughly pinning his back on him. "HAH, A _FREAK_ YOU SAY?! AS LONG AS I CAN BEAT VILLAINS SUCH AS YOU TO MERE ATOMS, I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU LABEL ME AS HAHAHAHA! AH? AND JUST WHERE HAS YOUR FRIEND GONE?"

Bob nr 1 was gone. Nowhere in sight. Not even a little bit of him. "WHAAAAT?! COULD I POTENTIALLY HAVE LOST HIM?! NO! COME BACK!" The number three hero got up and immediately started searching through the fire and smoke for Bob nr 1, although there wasn't much to look for, everything had already either burned away or collapsed. Fortunately the villain decided to come out of hiding on his own volition.

"I-I'm right here you freak."

"HM?"

" _MMhhmmnng, aaav meee hardseeenn_!"

You guessed it, the criminal had taken the camerawoman hostage, and you thought she was here just for show (pun intended).

"D-don't move! Or s-she's dead! I'm.. I'm going to shoot you, okay? A-and- and you won't move from that place!" He swallowed to try and compose himself, but it was obviously an utter failure. "O-or else I'll kill her."

"WHAT!? I CAN'T BELIEVE IT, WHAT A DISGUSTING THING TO DO!" The hero quickly rose his hands up, "SHOOT ME, AND RELEASE THE WOMA-"

And then finally, " _KYOKO_!" The true hero we had all been waiting for jumped into frame, literally. He tackled the criminal, who in turn had to release his hold on Kyoko to retaliate against the insane man. However, he wasn't even able to direct his gun towards the saviour fast enough, and so he got to feel a very strong right hook exactly in the jaw. By this point it was quite evident that Tsuna, our hero, was pinning the villain down on the ground while beating up his already deformed face without remorse. Meanwhile the substitute hero was definitely not simply cheering him on with loud "GO's" and definitely was trying to help out.

However, things took a turn for the worse once Bob nr 1 bumped his head forward which in turn collided with Tsuna's own jaw. And at that very same moment, a loud crack resonated in the area. It wasn't another explosion, nor was it the library's floors and walls crumbling down upon them, and neither was it the fart that came from the number three hero (which also fortunately vanished quickly into the smoke). It was a shot, a gunshot. The criminal had pulled the trigger, and the end of the barrel wasn't aimed at the far end of the hallway where our hero stood, but instead at the chest of Kyoko's saviour. He had managed to grip it tightly during the brief period of peace when Tsuna was immobilised by the headbutt and thus also accidentally pull the trigger.

There was a small scuffle, a shuffle, a muffled grunting, coughs, retching sounds and finally, a barely audible thud. "T.. Tsu.. na?" Nothing, there was nothing. No words from the male, no whimpering, no squirming, no weeping, no crying, no sounds, no... _nothing_. It was simply silent. And it was eerily suffocating, because even though the fire was still growing, and the walls were still crumbling, and the windows were still shattering loudly. Even though the floor was starting to deform, and the paintings and carpets were burning up to mere ashes, and the stairs were breaking down to nearly an inaccessible level. _Even though_ you could very clearly hear the sirens outside, and the people yelling outside, and the next bombs being detonated in the area, even though all of that, at that specific moment in time, it felt like there was absolutely no sound whatsoever. And it felt like hell.

The woman inched forward- crawled, really, towards her late friend. She felt cold, not hot in this scorching air, but cold, freezing. Her hands shook as she slowly gripped her friend's motionless body, it was warm. Her arms slowly cradled around his head, before she finally pulled him onto her lap, still completely unable to make a noise.

The criminal was equally horrified. He looked at the gun in his hands and as if the realisation of the situation had only now struck him, he watched it fall out of his bloodied hands onto the ground with a slight clicking sound. His hands were numb, he had never shot a gun before, and the recoil of doing it now was.. jarring. His head, however, far from it. "N-no.." The same fingers that had just seconds prior tightened around the trigger were now clutching without remorse on his bald, blood-covered scalp in complete and utter despair. Meanwhile, the woman had resorted to hugging his friend's body against her own as tightly as possible while weeping and stuttering his name over and over again.

Our true hero wasn't having such a depressing stew though. It wasn't long before he shouted out in his usual loud voice.

"AN EYE FOR AN EYE, VILLAIN! YOU MUST FACE THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE DESPICABLE ACTS YOU HAVE COMMITTED!" Within microseconds, the distance between both parties had quickly decreased from around 20 steps to simply an arm's length. And truly, the villain's gaze rolled up just in time to see a very huge and very fast fist drive towards his face.

* * *

"Your friend, Sawada Tsunayoshi.. we unfortunately.. we could not save him. The bullet had punctured right into the heart of his chest, ripping apart two arteries and a portion of the heart itself. He fell unconscious right after the shot, so thankfully.. he didn't feel anything."

"..."

Tears welled up in Kyoko's eyes like in a volcano, except instead of making a loud bang and erupting out of the tear glands in her eyes, they simply crawled down her cheeks onto the cold, black and white checkered floor. "I don't care if it was painless, he should have stayed conscious... at least then I could still have heard him and he could have heard me." Her voice was raspy when she spoke, as if it hadn't been used in forever, "He could have heard me say his name over and over and-and I could have said ' _I'm right here, don't go!_ ' to him, and I-and I could have hugged him and said it would be alright, and-and, and yet.. I.. _I couldn't even.. I.._ " Her hands rose up to clutch tightly at the hazel-brown strands of hair dripping down from her face, partly so that she just wouldn't have to see anything, and another to muffle the obviously wavering voice. " _The.. last thing that I said to him now will be.._ " She dug her own nails into the scalp of her head, not enough to form blood, but enough to still cause a temporary one week long mark to appear.

The doctor readjusted the glasses on his face. Not being able to save a patient took a toll on him as well. But of course, the feeling he had was immeasurable when compared to her. "Your friend, he.. cared a lot about you. We found this in his pocket, it's drenched slightly in blood, but still probably readable. And also.." He reached out with his left hand to give Kyoko a sealed letter, and a ring.

Once again, there was nothing. Silence, a point in time where absolutely no other sound came even close to penetrating her thoughts than the voice of Tsuna himself. She had been with him for so long now that she could actually hear him in her head say the things written out carefully and delicately on the paper. And soon enough, the hospital corridor was filled with the subtle sounds of a woman in her twenties crying, which after some time morphed into silent weeping.

Around an entire minute went by after that, before the doctor took it as his cue to leave, "I'll tell the others not to touch your friend until you give the okay." But, just before he could walk back into the room where the recently deceased lay, he stopped to listen to the last tired words his visitor uttered through the cracks in-between her hands.

"..."

" _He isn't my friend, he's my husband_."

...

..

.

A cold, empty end, to a still sizzling, lukewarm story.

And yet, it is from these same difficult stories that new, happier ones birth.

Happier stories, stories that don't require the same credentials as the last one to function in a normal observer's mind.

So now, it's finally time to ask of you, what is the most alone you have ever been? Could it be the time when you had no friends? Or perhaps the time when your parents abandoned you? Or the time when even a hero didn't recognize you as someone worthy of living anymore?

 _ **To be Continued**_

 **Author's Note:** The next chapters will be shorter unfortunately.


	2. Chapter 2: The Boy Who Became the Wanted

_**Boku no Hero Academia**_

 **Author's Note:** I lied.

So after looking at the enormously amazing reception of my last chapter (1 favourite at the time of writing this), I feel even more motivated to keep on going with this story. Thanks for reading.

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own Boku no Hero Academia, and if I did, then hot damn.

 **Rüvetus** _  
Chapter 02: The Boy Who Became the Wanted_

"Come _on,_ Thante! We're not gonna make it!"

"W... wait up, Midoriya, I can't- I'm, I... I think I'm gonna faint..."

"Eh?! But," I could barely glance over at Deku and make out the disappointed look he had on his face. "we're already so close..." His words forced me to shy my eyes away from him, over towards the horizon. _Maaan he's nearing tears already too, but.. did he really expect me to be fit enough to run all the way here..? Aaah, today suuucks..._ As our precious seconds ticked away into waste, I could very clearly tell how my head started cooling off from the still warm sweat on my forehead and despite my eyes still being directed down onto the ground, it was clear that Midoriya was anxiously exchanging looks between my tired body and the sunset-filled horizon.

"Why don't you just go there without me, or call Bakugo and his gang?" I already knew the answer, well to the latter one I did at least.

"I already told you.. they went to train on the playground." A short sigh passed through my otherwise pursed lips. I really didn't wanna disappoint Deku, I never did. Thus I tried to avoid instances where there was a slight possibility something like that could happen, but of course, even amongst the most brightest of men, accidents and exceptions do occur. The worst part was that.. he just _wouldn't_ feel disappointed at me, not outwardly at least. He'd smile awkwardly and blame it all on himself as if it was his own fault that I was incompetent. But in his mind.. I could tell that he was trying as hard as possible not to judge me or make me feel bad about myself. I know he tried to, he really did! And in most cases he probably succeeded as well. But.. it was just so obvious to me, in the end, at some point or another, even if it was just for a second, he'd blame me, that I was the faulty one. And rightfully so, I was at fault.

Of course, since I was careful not to spark this sort of.. inner turmoil full of hatred and death between us, it rarely happened. But as I said, exceptions do occur.

I suppressed a small cough itching at the back of my throat and gave a nod towards our destination. "Alright, let's keep going. I think I can run a couple more minutes.." My legs were already worn out, but it didn't matter. We were close.

Seconds passed in silence, with only our loud breathing being the disturbance here, until eventually.. "One.. One chocolate chip ice cream, please!"

 _Dick._

An ice cream truck was in front of us and the old guy inside was looking at Deku rather suspiciously as if wondering whether he even had the money to pay for this. But he started cooking up a mean batch of brown ice cream anyway. Meanwhile..

I wasn't exactly fuming with anger over Izuku's choice to run all the way over here just for a small ice cream treat, but my current emotions could very well be summarized up by the word written in italics above these two paragraphs. Now how, you might ask, does a kid at the age of eight know such a vulgar word? Shut up, okay, what were you doing at the age of eight, huh? Probably just sticking your finger in your nose and smearing buggers against school walls, yeah, at least I learned the culture and behavior around my place unlike you, _you dick_.

Getting back on topic, Deku didn't share my pessimistic view of the situation and instead opted to feel jovial, happy. Which was evident from the fact that he was just bouncing up and down in front of the truck as if he wanted to jump in it. The bus driver noticed his cheery attitude and even _he_ was forced to make a small smile as he leaned over the counter to give the kid his sweet treat. "It's on me, don't worry about the money kiddo." Midoriya just beamed at the guy, said his thanks and went off skipping towards me with the ice cream stretched out.

 _It's gonna fall._

It didn't. Instead, Deku made it safely over to me, and grinned. "Want a bite?" Yes I did, but that would make me look like a hypocrite for being angry at him, not like that would really stop me though.

So I glared at him for a second, before leaning forward and taking a huge bite out of the hazel brown chocolate chip ice cream. As it dissolved in my mouth, I glanced over at Izuku to see if he was ticked off over me taking such a big bite out of his.. he wasn't. The same goofy, innocent smile he had before was spread out like an arm in his face as he dug into the rest of it.

The way back was much better, we didn't have to run at all. Instead we took a short stroll around the streets and talked about how many toys we both had. I hadn't gotten any new ones since my last birthday, but my companion apparently had received another All Might figurine. I mean props to the kid, the hero was a legend, he deserved such fame after saving so many people. But you'd think after getting around twenty of them you'd be a little bit tired out.

"I still really like Heartsden more..."

Deku didn't mind. What a jolly ol' kid, always welcoming new, different kinds of thoughts and ideas. "He's scary, but cool! Heartsden uses his appearance against his enemies, and if that doesn't work then his bat-wolf hybrid completely beats the bad guys up! His speed, power and brute force are all so intimidating! And plus, a lot of people think he wasn't born in this country, so maybe he's from a completely different place in the world, and-and maybe he's also one of the top heroes in that country too! I've never heard of an international hero before! He's so _cooool_!" I offered a nod, if I hadn't heard it from Deku then I probably wouldn't even have known all of this stuff about Heartsden. But, thankfully, I did hear it from him, fifty times already in fact.

"You've told me this like a dozen times before Izuku, I can't believe you're still fixated on learning about all of their quirks and backstories. Don't you think you're going a bit too far with this? Others will start thinking there's something wrong with you y'know." He wasn't listening to me, seems like the story had switched over from Heart to Endeavour. "You should just get yourself a journal or something."

* * *

Around fifteen minutes passed before Midoriya reached the front porch of his home. I lived slightly further away from our school than Deku did, but it was no big fuss, an extra 10 minutes didn't mean much to me. He offered to send me back, but I declined with a slightly troubled grin. It was pretty obvious he still wanted to send me back anyway, but decided to simply nod grimly as if this would be the last time he'd ever see me again.

"Are you worried that I wouldn't be able to find my way back again? I'm not that helpless y'know." I assured him with a slight tug on his left shoulder. Didn't look like he was convinced. "Sorry I called you ov-" My fingers quickly curled up into a fist and that in itself found it's way over to Deku's arm. "Alright, see ya tomorrow in class!" I was already running away when I looked back to see a waving, sorta grinning, teary-eyed Midoriya. _Aaahhh crap, I probably shouldn't have punched him. Good going. Well.. that'll tell him to mess with me again!_

I rushed down the familiar road towards my ultimate goal. A few cars with some weird, flashy lights passed by me as I jogged, in my mind they were probably just some drunkards who wanted to go party at their mate's house, but for the most part the streets were empty.

Eventually I reach the front door of my worn-out house. I quickly knocked on the dented, wooden door, rushed inside into the clean corridor and said my hello's, before darting past the ajar bathroom door where my mom was currently in, right up the crooked stairs and stained/crippled wallpapers to my own room. To some people this room may have looked like a mess, there were clothes tossed around the room, some on the chair, some just sprawled about on the floor, and some even in the trash can. Meanwhile the study desk, or rather, the desk _meant_ for studying, was quite evidently missing the original function it was intended to be used for when it was being built. Aaand, let's ignore my shelf for the time being.

In reality this was exactly what a normal boy's room looked like, which was, indeed, a mess. This is who we, as boys, are, ladies. And no, I don't mean that we, boys, are ladies. Shut up.

Instead of cleaning up the desk, I went straight to my bed and texted Deku that I was alright. He sent a happy face back at me and asked whether I had finished studying. So, of course I feigned ignorance and asked what we were supposed to be doing tomorrow.

 _Finish the drawing of your favourite animal and explain why._

What. Now I wasn't much of an artist, I managed to make a palm tree seem like it had hair growing out of the coconuts which for some reason made our professor freak out at me. But even so, making second graders draw animals is just asking for generic cat and dogs pictures. In fact I could just imagine the teacher scrolling through the papers after class noting down to himself whether it was a cat or a dog on the paper based on if the drawing had whiskers and then later complaining to his friends at work like 'oh no I have over 20 students and all of them drew a cat when I asked for a favourite animal picture, they can't even be original, man it's so great to judge people based on their drawings ew ew ew'.

But it's not like I could complain, nor did I. This was basically a free class - I didn't have to do anything. So after checking through my shelves and desks for paper, I started scribbling a wolf onto the backside of a store cheque.

It barely took me five minutes, before I already finished and threw the cheque in my black, worn out bag.

"Thante, dinner's ready, come downstairs!" I cracked my fingers and stretched for a couple of seconds before slowly walking towards the entrance/exit of my room and pulling it open. After carefully avoiding the broken floorboard on the fifth step, I bumbled into the kitchen where my mom and dad were already seated. Dad was reading a newspaper, not even glancing at the deliciously big appetizer on his plate, meanwhile my mother was only glaring at her own plate. I sighed as dad put away the paper and exchanged a look with everyone before starting on his food as if this was just a normal family gathering.

"What did you and Midoriya do, Thante?"

I chomped down on the two potatoes on my plate before giving the guy his answer. "He wanted to go buy some ice cream, so we went and did it. Nothing else." Dad only nodded and bit down on his two juicy pieces of steak before going in for another question.

"Did you buy one too, I gave you some money beforehand just in case something like this happened." _Smart dad._

I gurgled down my own slightly burnt meat piece before shaking my head. "Nope, didn't buy anything, didn't want to waste it."

"I see." He allowed a small chuckle in-between eating. What was he expecting anyway, I wasn't going to just spend it all on chips and then boast to my friends over how rich I was.

"Have you already studied?"

"Yeah, thanks for the meal." I finished chewing the last bit of the salad before dumping my dishes in the sink and washing them. "Good night." I was sent off with silence just like how I was greeted. A very quick meal with words without sound being spoken during conversations.

* * *

"You can't be serious Crow! This can't be- you didn't even draw it on a piece of paper! This is lazy on a whole new level, I'm very disappointed in you." _Tch.. shut up._ The other kids were laughing, which had been my intention all along anyway, so I didn't mind the big fat F I got on my.. uhh, paper.

"Next up is.. Midoriya."

"Yes!" Deku stood up right away like the obedient student he was and rushed forward to take back his drawing. Meanwhile, someone in my row extended out their leg to make the poor boy trip, thankfully it wasn't very effective, Midoriya had been expecting it. Of course he would be when it had happened to him like a gazillion times already. So after simply jumping over the leg, Deku reached out his hands to take back his crude drawing of a hedgehog.

"Excellent work Midoriya, I hope next time you'll make a drawing that's just as good!" That sentence made my dear friend beam at the professor while he walked back to his seat. _Uh oh_. I could see the same guy try to trip Izuku over in front of me. _Come on buddy, watch, look at your legs, LOOK AT THEM, YOU'RE JUST GONNA FALL OVER AGAIN! IIIIIZUUUUUKUUUU_! As loud as my thoughts were in my head, they didn't even come out as much as a whisper in the real world and as such, my dear Deku was soon, again, sprawled out on the floor while most of the class just laughed at him. I only sighed. _Aaah.. Izuku.. you should have seen that one coming.._

He quickly got up, mumbled something about an apology for disrupting the class and then went back to his desk red-faced. "Next one iiiis.. Bakugo. Your drawing is great, bu- huh?" The teacher looked around the classroom for a few brief moments, I shuffled out my bag and buried my head inside it to look for something. "Bakugo isn't here today? But then how did this drawing get on my table?" There was a moment of silence before one of the kids behind Deku raised his hand, "Teacher, Bakugo had to stay home today. But he gave me the drawing anyway and told me to hand it over to you." The eldest in the room wasn't really that happy about his star pupil's absence, but it's not like he could force him to come back.

I didn't look at Midoriya at the time, so I couldn't say for certain, but I was sure he would just be worried for the kid who constantly bullied him. Not like I could blame him, they had been together since even before I had met him, plus Izuku was always worrying about others. He was just that type of kid.

Our classes went on as normal after that. During the break I went ahead and took the seat of the person in front of Deku to have some quality time with him. The seat was still directed towards the desk, but I was facing my good friend, with both of my legs on either side of the chair. My friend was just about ready to put away his food when I crossed my arms on his desk.

"Keep eatin', I don't mind." And so he pulled his lunch back out again. "Thanks." I took a few greens and a slice of pork meat out of it and nommed them down.

"Is this why you wanted me to keep eating?"

I let out a laugh and took the entire box to myself. "You're the best!" A small glance towards Deku's shy smiley face was all I needed to know that he was okay with me taking it. "Maaan, your ma' really makes the best food there is. I haven't eaten since last night, so hungry! Thank you! I owe you one~!"

"Did you sleep in again then?" I winked at him and quickly put the rice in my mouth. "Mmm, sho gwood."

"Ahaha.. You shouldn't go to bed so laaate..." _You're so timid Izuku, if you wanna convince me you gotta yell from the bottom of your heart!_

"I can't help it. I just don't look forward to waking up in the mornings as much as you do." I could tell Midoriya was worried about me, but it was useless. No matter how much he cared about me I was not able to simply change myself overnight. Mostly because I was just way too lazy to do that.

"It's not like I have much to wake up to either..." I choked on the huge carrot piece I had stuffed in my throat as the dumb kid said that.

"You mean you're not looking forward to seeing my bright smile in the mornings?!" I feigned being hurt, but it wasn't really that effective considering the carrot was still stuck lodged in my throat. So lots of coughs ensued, a few kids in the classroom laughed at me. _Mission accomplished. Now how do I not die.._ Meanwhile Izuku was both worried over my well-being and trying to assure me that he didn't mean anything of the sorts. So I just waved my hand in an attempt to shut him up until eventually the carrot piece went down like normal. "Phew." I took in a couple of deep breaths before laughing loudly at Izuku.

He followed suite, but with a much more quiet, shy laugh. But as all good things come to an end, so too did our small friendly bubble, it was popped like a bubble.

"Crow is hilarious hah-hah!" I picked out the voices of my two classmates by the door, which was quite surprising considering my hearing was terrible, especially here where there were lots of students talking to each other at the same time, nevertheless, a small smile perked up on my face over the girl's comment.

"He is, I think a few screws are loose on his head though.." My smile widened, I was sure they didn't mean it in a derogatory way. I glanced over at Izuku, but was a bit too preoccupied to pick out the facial expression he held.

"Hah-hah-haa, but you know, I hear that.." Their voices dimmed down a little bit, but I could still hear them thankfully. "he's supposedly into guys.." My smile wavered. "He doesn't talk to us girls almost at all, and he's always near boys." I could feel my hands slowly grow cold and my heartbeat speed up.

"You think so?"

"Mhm, especially around Deku."

"You think he likes Deku? That's impossible!"

"Yeeeah you're right, I doubt he'd like someone like Deku if he was into boys!"

"What, is there someone else then?"

"Someone else? No way, well, maybe Bakugo?" Their voices had grown louder again.

"Huh? Bakugo? But why would he hang around Deku so much then?"

"Hmm.. true. I guess you're right.. Maybe he's just pitying him?" I could feel my smile start to fall apart as I continued listening.

"I mean... who wouldn't? He prolly' doesn't want to seem like a bad guy, so..so he's talking to everyone. Even Deku." The last membranes of my smile disappeared behind the new image of me with a thin line as the final few words the girls spoke resonated into my ear.

"Think about it! Deku doesn't have a quirk, why would Crow talk normally with someone who just doesn't have a quirk?"

"I guess you're right. But isn't Crow also quirkless?"

"You think that's why they're together so much?"

"Well, no, I doubt it, in the end.. I just can't see anyone being Deku's friend just because they actually want to.." At this point I dimmed out their voices. I couldn't listen to them anymore, I felt sick. A small part of me wanted to throw up.

The girls continued talking and I slowly got out of my trance, surprisingly my eyes were still glued onto Deku's face across from me. I had been glaring at him all this time, but only now did I realise what kind of emotion was depicted on Deku's face. Guilt. Guilt over me being talked behind my back. Guilt over our friendship and guilt over his quirklessness. And yet despite that, he was still looking at me straight on. More than just looking at me, studying me, studying what my reaction to any point of their conversation was. Even when he's down, he still retains some of his usual.. _quirks._

I slowly started re-devouring Deku's lunch. "No better food than the one from your mom." I swallowed the rice and quickly choked down some juice Izuku had pulled out of his bag after my last accident.

He only nodded.

 _Of course, hearing something like that would take a toll on him... Khhh... I should have just denied the things those idiots said._ The atmosphere was so different only mere minutes ago, and now it was just terrible.

I sighed, eating the last portion of the rice with one bite. I was about to close the lunchbox as well and return it, but then something glinted inside it. "Hm?" I shoved my fingers inside and found a very small wrapped up paper.

Thinking it was a secret message from Deku's mom to whomever kept eating the kid's lunch (because Midoriya was definitely way too skinny to eat all of it), I quickly returned the box to Deku with a grin and pocketed the note I found inside. "Thanks for the food!"

Deku only gave a small nod.

"C'mon, Crow, the class is starting soon, lemme on my seat." I gave my friend one more smile, before relieving the seat for it's rightful owner. "See ya later."

* * *

For the next couple of days, Deku's behaviour changed from the usual shy, slightly ditzy self to simply.. being.. quiet. Always. No peep. Just silent. It was different. You can't explain it, but he wasn't the same. We didn't talk much.

I didn't change though, was still the same as always - didn't stop hanging out with my friends, didn't stop waking up in the morning, didn't stop making jokes and didn't stop eating from Deku's lunchbox.

I did however start talking with girls more.

If you're interested in knowing what was said in the small letter placed at the bottom of the lunchbox, then the main point was simply Deku thanking me for being his friend and not picking on him.

I felt terrible after reading that and placed the letter on my shelf, never mentioning it to him.

Everything went back to normal a week and a half later. None of this was ever mentioned.

 _ **To be Continued**_

 **Author's Note:** IT WAS NOT AN INDIRECT KISS. I hope you enjoyed reading this.


End file.
